The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently released the performance indicator report (PIR) for the October-December 2013 quarter. The report has been prepared based on the information provided by service providers, and highlights the growth trends in the telecom sector during the three-month period.

According to the report, the country?s telecom subscriber base (wireless and wireline) increased from 899.86 million in end-September 2013 to 915.19 million in end-December 2013, registering a growth of 1.7 per cent. The overall teledensity increased from 73.01 per cent to 74.02 per cent during this period.

Bharti Airtel led the pack in terms of overall subscribers. The operator recorded the highest net additions (5.04 million) during the quarter, followed by Vodafone India (4.87 million) and Aircel (3.67 million). Meanwhile, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) registered the highest net decline (2 million) in its subscriber base during the quarter under review.

The urban telecom subscriber base increased from 543.18 million in end-September 2013 to 549.4 million in end-December 2013, resulting in an increase in urban teledensity from 144.02 per cent to 144.95 per cent. Meanwhile, the rural subscriber base increased from 356.68 million to 365.79 million during this period, which led to a growth in rural teledensity from 41.7 per cent to 42.67 per cent. The share of rural subscribers in the user base grew from 39.64 per cent to 39.97 per cent. Idea Cellular had the highest share of rural subscribers (54.69 per cent), followed by Vodafone India (53.67 per cent).

Wireline

The wireline subscriber base reduced from 29.28 million in end-September 2013 to 28.89 million in end-December 2013,

registering a decline of 1.33 per cent. The rural wireline subscriber base decreased from 6.31 million to 6.12 million, while the urban user base decreased from 22.97 million to 22.77 million.

BSNL continued to lead the wireline market with a 65.54 per cent share. However, the company?s subscriber base decreased by about 2.23 per cent during October-December 2013 and stood at 18.94 million.

The total number of public call offices stood at 1.02 million in end-December 2013, as compared to 1.09 million in end-September 2013. On the other hand, the number of village public telephones increased from 589,313 to 589,330 during the quarter ended December 2013.

Wireless

The total wireless (GSM and CDMA) subscriber base witnessed a growth of 1.81 per cent from 870.58 million to 886.3 million during the quarter under review. It increased by 2.5 per cent over the corresponding quarter in 2012.

Meanwhile, the country?s wireless teledensity increased from 70.63 per cent during July-September 2013 to 71.69 per cent during the quarter under consideration. The rural wireless subscriber base increased by 2.65 per cent in the quarter ended December 2013 as compared to the quarter ended September 2013. As a result, the share of rural subscribers in the wireless user base increased from 40.25 per cent to 40.58 per cent during the period under consideration. Meanwhile, the urban wireless user base increased by 1.23 per cent during the quarter ended December 2013.

GSM services continued to dominate the wireless market, accounting for 92.98 per cent of the wireless subscriber base. The overall GSM subscriber base stood at 824.06 million in end-December 2013, as compared to 807.68 million in end-September 2013, registering a growth of 2.03 per cent. Meanwhile, the overall CDMA user base decreased by 1.07 per cent, from 62.91 million in end-September 2013 to 62.24 million in end-December 2013.

With a subscriber base of 198.41 million (22.39 per cent market share), Bharti Airtel accounted for the highest share in the wireless market, followed by Vodafone India, which had 160.41 million users.

Among CDMA operators, Reliance Communications (RCOM) maintained its lead position with a subscriber base of 32.42 million and a market share of 51.53 per cent. With regard to net additions, all operators registered a decline during the quarter under review.

Mobile ARPUs and usage

GSM services

The monthly all-India blended ARPU for GSM players increased from Rs 109 in the quarter ended September 2013 to Rs 112 in the quarter ended December 2013. The prepaid ARPU increased from Rs 95 to

Rs 98, while the post-paid ARPU dropped from Rs 463 to Rs 456.

The overall monthly minutes of usage (MoUs) per subscriber for GSM services increased by 1.1 per cent from 375 in the quarter ended September 2013 to 379 in the quarter ended December 2013. Prepaid MoUs per subscriber increased from 351 to 355, while post-paid MoUs decreased from 981 to 964.

The overall ratio of incoming MoUs and outgoing MoUs remained unchanged at 51:49 during the quarter ended De-cember 2013. The number of outgoing SMSs per subscriber per month decreased from 29 in end-September 2013 to 28 in end-December 2013. The usage pattern of outroamers (usage from outside the home service area) showed that incoming minutes accounted for 43.4 per cent of the total MoUs during October-December 2013 as compared to 42.6 per cent in the previous quarter.

CDMA services

The monthly ARPU for CDMA full mobility services increased by 5.48 per cent from Rs 98.22 in the quarter ended September 2013 to Rs 103.6 in the quarter ended December 2013. On a year-on-year basis in this quarter, the CDMA ARPU increased by 29.58 per cent. The MoUs per CDMA subscriber, per month increased by 3.53 per cent, from 262 in the quarter ended September 2013 to 272 in the quarter ended December 2013. The outgoing MoUs increased from 137 to 141 and the incoming MoUs went up from 125 to 130.

Quality of service

During October-December 2013, the performance of 2G wireless service providers improved with regard to parameters such as metering and billing credibility (post-paid as well as prepaid), percentage of calls (voice-to-voice) answered by operators within 60 seconds and percentage of requests for termination of service complied with within seven days. For 3G operators, these parameters included worst-affected cells having more than 3 per cent call drop rate and circuit-switched voice drop rate, and point-of-interconnection congestion.

The performance of 2G wireless service providers deteriorated during October-December 2013 with regard to parameters such as accumulated downtime of base transceiver stations (BTSs), worst-affected BTSs due to downtime, call set-up success rate, paging channel congestion, call drop rate, worst-affected cells with a call drop rate of over 3 per cent, connection with good voice quality, resolution of billing/charging/validity complaints, period of applying credit/waiver/adjustment to customer?s account from the date of resolution of complaints, accessibility of call centre/customer care and time taken for refund of deposits after closures. For 3G operators, these parameters included accumulated downtime of Node-Bs, worst-affected Node-Bs due to downtime, call set-up success rate, paging channel congestion, connection with good voice quality and circuit-switched voice quality.

Internet and broadband

TRAI has divided the parameters for this segment into two parts ? internet subscribers excluding internet access through mobile devices, and internet subscribers accessing services through mobile devices.

As of December 2013, the country had 143 internet service providers (ISPs) and 238.71 million internet subscribers, including those accessing the internet through their mobile handsets. The wired broadband subscriber base stood at 18.33 million. Bharti Airtel led the internet market with a 23.37 per cent share (55.78 million subscribers at end-December 2013), followed by Vodafone (45.65 million) and BSNL (41.08 million). The 10 leading ISPs together accounted for 97.9 per cent of the subscriber base. The top five states in terms of internet subscriptions (wired and wireless) are Maharashtra (38.77 million), Uttar Pradesh (22.9 million), Tamil Nadu (19.65 million), Gujarat (17.92 million) and Andhra Pradesh (17.07 million).

Further, as of December 2013, there were 55.2 million broadband subscribers and 183.51 million narrowband subscribers. Wireless (dongle and phone) is the most preferred technology used by service providers to provide broadband services and is used by 72.95 per cent of the total broadband subscriber base. The top five states in terms of broadband subscriptions are Maharashtra (9.23 million), Delhi (5.78 million), Tamil Nadu (5.77 million), Karnataka (4.61 million) and Andhra Pradesh (4.40 million).

Financial performance

In December 2013, the sector?s gross revenue and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) stood at Rs 583.85 billion and Rs 395.75 billion respectively. The gross revenue and AGR increased by 1.62 per cent and 1.97 per cent respectively as compared to the previous quarter.